Eldad ha-Dani or Eldad HaDani or Eldad ben Mahli ha-Dani (Hebrew: אלדד הדני‎) was a Jewish, Hebrew-writing merchant and traveler of the ninth century. He professed to have been a citizen of an "independent Jewish state" in eastern Africa, probably in the Gihon region, inhabited by people claiming descent from the tribes of Dan (hence his name, "ha-Dani" = "the Danite"), Asher, Gad, and Naphtali. Starting from this state, Eldad visited Babylonia, Kairouan, and Spain, causing everywhere a great stir among the Jews by his fanciful accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes, and by the halakhot which he asserted he had brought from his native country. These halakhot, written in Hebrew, deal with the slaughtering and subsequent examination of animals (see Kosher). They differ widely from the Talmudic ordi